chapter 19

Chapter 19

My father and I met openly as mountaineering friends. In public, we did not address each other as father and son, nor did we plan to live together. After so many years apart, we both had our own lives.

My father changed jobs and started working at a bookstore, where he met Aunt Wang, who loved reading. The two of them got together, but did not marry-just kept each other company.

Aunt Wang had a 25-year-old daughter. My father treated her well, and she was filial to him in return.

And so, another ten years passed.

In the summer of 2021, my father suffered a sudden heart attack and passed away at the age of 64. Wang’s Daughter organized the funeral for him, and I attended as my father’s mountaineering friend. According to his wishes, my father’s ashes were scattered on the mountaintop.

Sometimes I think, after all the hardest times were behind him, my father deserved a few more good years. But that day, when we climbed to the top of the mountain, my father said, “I’ve been living on borrowed time for so many years. I should have died in the summer of 1997.”

That day, I told my father that the case was too old, and the police had given up. He believed me.

What he didn’t know was that once a fugitive is officially wanted, the police never give up the pursuit.

The police stopped investigating because the case was closed.